Scanners are well known devices that capture and digitize images of documents. Most scanners are relatively large devices that are used to scan documents a full page at a time. An example of such a scanner is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,678,075.
Recently, smaller scanners have been introduced. Typically, these smaller scanners are used to scan less than a full page of a document. For example, the can be used to scan sentences or phrases from a document. The data obtained from the scanning process can later be transferred to a personal computer for storage.
Some handheld scanners start scanning when a button is depressed, and some scan as long as this button is depressed. Some automatically detect that a scan has begun because a sensor near the tip of the scanner is depressed. Some scanners may have integrated flash memory, or an infra-red or USB connection to store data locally on a scanner or remotely on a personal computer. Many scanners have a power switch that may be used to turn on these scanners, and some are able to automatically shut down due to inactivity. Some scanners may only be able to store text. Some are able to capture an image of unrecognized content (e.g. handwriting, mathematical symbols, pictures) if the user touches a button.
On some scanners, a user may be able to set a switch so the scanner is better able to interpret what it is scanning (e.g. setting a language character set). Some scanners may be controlled with a separate user interface on a personal computer, and then having to synchronize the scanner with this computer. Currently, these scanners do not allow a user to control functionality or results with methods other than activating a button or switch or some sort. A user is not able to make use of the intuitive gestures to users using an actual pen.
Some devices intend to allow a person to scan a document and then determine which characters have been scanned. While many of these devices are given form factors reminiscent of pens, they are often intended primarily to convert printed text to an electronic form. One goal of some embodiments of this invention is to allow users to enjoy the benefits of scanning text by annotating it.
Thus, there is a need for a portable scanner with more intuitive controls.